1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automotive forward-looking system and a method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Vehicles are recently equipped with various types of safety devices with an increase in demand for safety performance of vehicles. Vehicles are equipped with various safety devices, such as not only an airbag system or an ABS (Anti-Lock Brake System) that is one of the typical automotive safety devices, but an ESP (Electronic Stability Program), a TMPS (Tire Pressure Monitoring System), and a LDWS (Lane Departure Warning System). An AEB (Autonomous Emergency Braking) system, a kind of those automotive safety devices, has been proposed. The AEB system, which can prevent a vehicle that is running from colliding with other vehicles and pedestrians by determining whether it is a situation requiring emergency braking and by braking the vehicle in an emergency, is one of the automotive safety devices which is recently urged by Euro-NCAP (European New Car Assessment Program) etc.
The AEB system needs to keep monitoring or observing the area ahead of a vehicle while the vehicle runs, in order to determine whether there is an emergency or there is an obstacle ahead. However, in general, because forward-looking sensors have a predetermined range of FOV (Field Of View), it is difficult to keep an appropriate observation range following the running direction of vehicles on curved roads. That is, those forward-looking sensors having a predetermined FOV may have a problem in that they lose their objective vehicle, misrecognize an object by confusing it with another vehicle in the next lane, or trace a wrong object. Accordingly, the forward-looking sensors are controlled to turn at a predetermined angle to maintain an appropriate observation range on curved roads.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing control of turning a forward-looking sensor on a curve. Referring to FIG. 1, while a vehicle V0 runs on a curved road, a forward-looking sensor is controlled to turn at a predetermined angle so that an appropriate observation range can be maintained in accordance with the running direction. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, when the vehicle V0 running with a first observation range F1 enters a curved road, the forward-looking sensor is turned clockwise at a predetermined angle to have a second observation range F2 in accordance with the curvature of the curved road, thereby preventing misrecognition by the forward-looking sensor.
The control of turning the forward-looking sensor is achieved by calculating the curvature of the curved road and turning the forward-looking sensor in consideration of the speed of the vehicle. The curvature of the curved road is calculated from information about the curved road or the race of a vehicle V1 ahead, but using this method is limited, depending on traveling environments. There is a technical limit in that the road information cannot be used when the road is unclear or it is night, and the trace of the vehicle V1 ahead cannot be used when there is no vehicle V1 ahead or the vehicle V1 ahead moves along a path different from the curved road.